50 US hospitals overcharge uninsured by 1000% - study

Fifty US hospitals charged uninsured patients an average of ten times more than they should have to provide medical care in 2012, a new study found. This equates to a patient who’s treatment should have cost $100, having to shell out $1,000.

The research, published in Health Affairs, found
that all but one of the hospitals was a for-profit operation.
Forty percent of them are located in Florida, and that most of
the hospitals were owned by larger corporations, such as
Community Health Systems, which operates half of the 50 hospitals with top consumer costs.
Hospital Corp. of America operates 14 of the hospitals on the
list.

“They are price-gouging because they can,” said Gerard
Anderson, a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public
Health and co-author of the study, according to The Washington Post. "They
are marking up the prices because no one is telling them they
can’t.”

The study used Medicare data between May 2012 and April 30, 2013
to analyze hospitals that charged more than 10 times their
average costs. They took the total charges of a hospital and then
divided by the patient care cost. This was then defined as the
total costs Medicare paid out for those holding the
government-subsidized insurance policy.

“These are the hospitals that have the highest markup of all
5,000 hospitals in the United States," Anderson added.
"This means, when it costs the hospital $100, they are going
to charge you, on average, $1,000.”

Outside of those with Medicare or Medicaid, the study's authors
said the high costs negatively impact all health consumers,
including the uninsured, those with private insurance forced to
visit out-of-network hospitals, and anyone who pays premiums, as
high medical costs boost the price of health insurance. Patients
using workers' compensation and those covered by automobile
insurance are also disproportionately affected, the study found.

“Collectively, this system has the effect of charging the
highest prices to the most vulnerable patients and those with the
least market power,” Anderson and co-author Ge Bai, of
Washington and Lee University, wrote. The results are
“exceptionally high medical bills, which often leads to
personal bankruptcy or the avoidance of needed medical
services.”

The most expensive hospital was North Okaloosa Medical Center in
the Florida Panhandle. The hospital charged uninsured patients an
average of 12.6 times the actual cost of care. New Jersey’s
Carepoint Health-Bayonne Hospital had the same rate, but the
state requires discounts to be provided to some uninsured
patients.

In comparison, the average US hospital charges 3.4 times the cost
of patient care.

Maryland and West Virginia are the only states that regulate
hospital mark-ups, the study found.

Community Health Systems, which reported revenue of $4.91 billion
in the first quarter of 2015, disputed the study's findings,
saying that it relied on a pricing list that is rarely followed.